Accra, May 23, GNA – The Accra Premier Lions Club, a non-governmental service organisation, has donated an incubator to the Saint Luke Catholic Hospital in Apam in the Central Region to help reduce neonatal deaths in the area.
The presentation, valued at US$3,500, formed part of the Club’s Presidential Project for the 2022/2023 Service Year.
The St. Luke Catholic Hospital, which serves as a district hospital for the Gomoa–West District, has been operating without a functioning incubator for years – a situation that puts premature babies delivered at the hospital at risk.
According to the Management of the Hospital, an average of three babies are born premature, requiring admission into Neonatal Intensive Care Unit – while at least four incubators have broken down for years.
The Accra Premier Lions Club, by its humanitarian mandate, presented the incubator to the management of the St. Luke Catholic Hospital.
The Club, in collaboration with the Hospital, also organised a free health screening exercise for 100 residents of the Gomoa West District.
The exercise saw beneficiaries screened and treated for sugar test and weight, COVID-19, malaria, and HIV counselling.
Lion Richard Baah –Messie, the President for the 2022/2023 Lions Service Year, said he observed that St. Luke Catholic Hospital was saddled with numerous challenges and thus he and his team decided to raise funds to support the hospital.
He said the incubator would go a long way to serve the facility effectively to save the lives of newly-born babies.
“Four incubators at the hospital have been abandoned for years. For the past five years, they (the hospital) have been working without the incubator so they transfer the nursing mother and the baby to another hospital which could be far away and that can cost the life of the baby,” Lion Baah –Messie said.
Mr Mathias Ayegre Anaba, the Administrator of St. Luke Catholic Hospital, said the hospital was facing daunting challenges which imposed a lot of burden on management.
He said more than half of the hospital’s clinical and support service was rusty, adding that their X-ray machines were not functioning while delivery beds at the maternity were also in bad shape.
He thanked the Accra Premier Lions Club for the gesture and assured that the Hospital would not relent on its duty despite the challenges confronting it.
Mr Denis Na-Ebong, the District Director of Health Service for Gomoa-West, in a speech read on his behalf, expressed gratitude to the Club for the presentation.
He gave an assurance that the incubator would be maintained properly to serve the facility and its clients.
Mr Bismark Basie Nkum, the District Chief Executive for Gomoa West, pleaded with the management of the Hospital to take good care of the incubator and maintain it properly.
In his remarks, the Chairman for the occasion, Professor Richard Kofi Asiedu said he would support the hospital and called on individuals to assist the hospital.
GNA